Epidemiologist says 'the faster Omicron spreads, the more opportunities there are for mutation' that could lead to the emergence of new strains

Conflicting reports as to whether officials expect manageable number of severe cases or huge jump; surging cases force reliance on potentially unreliable rapid tests

As the year draws to a close, experts say there is hope the COVID-19 scare could begin fading soon -- but vaccine inequalities must be addressed, or new, worse variants may arise

Arrivals must also quarantine for 10 days even if fully vaccinated, nation says, as world scrambles to respond to new concerning variant

Discoveries follow suspected case in Belgium, as Europe introduces travel restrictions to curb spread of new COVID strain suspected to be highly contagious

With younger people increasingly coming in for treatment with more serious cases of COVID, doctors fear health systems could become overwhelmed

The ECD notes 'considerable uncertainty related to transmissibility, vaccine effectiveness, risk for reinfections and other properties'

Pharmaceutical company says it is also examining using a higher dose of its existing vaccine against new strain

Jewish virologist Barry Schoub, who advises the government, says data so far indicates vaccines protect against severe illness from new COVID variant

Firm that developed vaccine with Pfizer says it will have more data available next month, but has plans in motion to be able to mass-manufacture adapted inoculation